To the people who planned and participated in the Legacy Run stop in Albert Lea.

Congratulations to all the local residents who took part in or planned the American Legion Legacy Run stop in Albert Lea on Wednesday.

The event brought more than 400 motorcycles from all over the country through Albert Lea to participate in a five-day ride that started in Kansas and was slated to end in Minnesota.

Riders came into town on U.S. Highway 69 and first went to Graceland Cemetery, where they placed a wreath in honor of Corey Goodnature, who was killed while performing a rescue mission in Afghanistan in 2005.

After the ceremony at the cemetery, the group also stopped downtown, where they had lunch. They also heard from Mayor Vern Rasmussen Jr., who declared the day American Legion Legacy Run Day.

We applaud the efforts of this event, which go to support a need-based scholarship open to children of fallen post-9/11 service members.

We enjoyed seeing all the riders in town that day and could feel extra patriotism in the area.

 

To all the people who participated in the Tribune’s Celebrate the First Day of School contest.

Thanks to all the parents and grandparents who submitted photos of their children in the Albert Lea school district on their first day of school this week.

It was fun to see how excited all the children were to return to another year at school.

We had great participation in the contest and plan to have another one for students who aren’t in the Albert Lea district.

Photos for that contest will be excepted through Sept. 7 and can be emailed to news@albertleatribune.com.

As with the Albert Lea contest, there will be two prizes — one for Renaissance Festival tickets and one for the new Albert Lea-opoly game. We look forward to seeing your creativity.

 

To teachers in the area.

Though school officially started for Albert Lea Area Schools this week, teachers have been busy back to school for several weeks.

These teachers have been busy preparing their classrooms, working on lesson plans and getting ready to welcome in their students, and we thank them for their hard work.

We hope it will be a great year for all involved, and we look forward to seeing what students at each of the schools will be  working on.

 

To increases in the summer student enrollment at Albert Lea Area Schools.

It was welcome news to hear Albert Lea Superintendent Mike Funk say Monday night at the school board meeting that summer enrollment in the district is the highest it has been in the past decade.

Funk said there was almost double the number of students who enrolled this summer in the district than there were last year. These additional students pushed the enrollment for kindergarteners through 12th-graders to 3,380.

We agree with Funk that this is a sign of growth in the community and we hope those numbers stay steady or continue to grow in coming years.